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Another early morning....
The bus picked us up and took us to the cloud forest (not the same as a rain forest apparently...) so we could go ziplining. I wasn't scared until they showed us what we actually had to do. We were strapped into harnesses, round our waists and trough our legs, they had wee pulleys attached to them. We also had some lovely safety hats.
We walked through the forest, uphill to some giant platforms, and climbed the stairs. The instructors attached us to the cables, and then we sat down in mid air, the cables taking our weight, legs up in the air, feet crossed, heads back. One arm was holding our cables, and the other hand was hooked loosely around the zipline in case we needed to brake.
The instructors let go, and we went flying off down the lines. We were so high up, and went pretty fast. Me and Ruth went a bit slower, cos we were lighter, and some of the long ones, they made us go with instructors or we'd get stuck. That made us go faster, and meant I had both hands free to take videos.
After 12 cables, we came to the tarzan swing. It's kind of like a bungee jump, but when you jump off you go down and swing like a pendulum instead of up and down. I was petrified, but figured I should give it a go. They adjust the cable according to your weight, so you don't hit the ground. But as soon as they tighten it, I started moving forwards. The guy told me to hold the rope with both hands, but I knew I'd fall as soon as I let go. I think you're supposed to jump, but I slid off.
The initial fall is the scariest, as you think you're going to hit the ground. You are literally in free fall off a platform, heading for the ground, and the at the last minute, the cable catches, and you start swinging forward and back, with the guys trying to catch your legs.
My legs were utter jelly afterwards, but it was possibly the best thing I've ever down. We still had 2 more lines to do. I got stuck on my own on the 2nd last. The last one was giant, and reallly high up. We all had to go in pairs, I went with the instructor, and we got stuck half way. Mid air, really really high up. We had to get rescued by another instructor. Caught it all on video, it's quite funny.
After that, we went on the hanging bridges, through the same forest we'd just zipped over. it was nice to see it up close. We saw some awesome insects, white furry caterpillars, all moving in a line.
Back for lunch, and spent the afternoon reading, as we were all so wiped out. Dinner and early night!
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